Action Spotlight

End the war and blockade in Yemen imposed by the Saudi-led coalition which the U.S. is refueling. Urge your Representative to co-sponsor the Khanna-Massie resolution. Urge your Rep. to take action!
Img: Medecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders)

Unacceptable: Congress blocked vote on the Saudi famine-war in Yemen.

Last week, efforts to get a floor vote in the House on U.S. participation in the Saudi-UAE famine-war in Yemen on the Defense Appropriation were blocked by the House Republican leadership.

There's only one path left to force a floor vote in the House on U.S. participation in the Saudi famine-war: press House Members to use their Congressional war powers to force a debate and vote on withdrawing unauthorized U.S. participation from Saudi Arabia's war - just as Dennis Kucinich forced a House vote on U.S. participation in the unauthorized war in Libya in 2011.

U.S. participation in Saudi Arabia's war is politically vulnerable in the House, if we can force a vote:

- Congress has never authorized U.S. participation in Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen. Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen has nothing to do with the U.S. wars on Al Qaeda or ISIS.
- U.S. participation in Saudi Arabia's war is a pure "war of choice." It has nothing to do with protecting the U.S. homeland. The Obama Administration began U.S. participation in the war as a "favor" to Saudi Arabia, to "compensate" them for accepting the Iran nuclear deal.
- Saudi Arabia's war is helping Al Qaeda, by creating a security vacuum in Yemen, and because Saudi Arabia is allied with Al Qaeda against the Houthi-Saleh alliance in Yemen.
- Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen has pushed Yemen to the brink of famine, creating the largest humanitarian crisis in the world and the worst cholera outbreak in the world. UNICEF says a child is dying in Yemen of preventable causes like malnutrition and diarrhea every ten minutes.
- Saudi Arabia is politically unpopular in the U.S. outside the Beltway, in part because of its well-publicized ties to terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. Under public pressure from families of 9/11 victims, Congress voted overwhelmingly to lift Saudi Arabia's immunity from lawsuits related to the 9/11 attacks.
- The last time the House voted on any aspect of U.S. participation in the war, in June 2016, the House narrowly failed to ban the transfer of cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia. That was before Yemen became the humanitarian crisis that it is today.

Here's the question that must be tested on the floor of the House: why are we helping a country we think may have played a role in the 9/11 attacks starve children to death in Yemen with a war and blockade that has nothing to do with protecting the U.S. and is in fact is helping Al Qaeda?